


faking

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [38]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 11:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1897272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim became his "boyfriend", and he was pretty damn good at the act. He would more often than not, when he wasn't working at the cafe he had managed to get a job at, come in and meet Leonard in the hospital cafeteria for lunch, because "that's what couples do, Bones, no wonder you and your wife split up, Jesus". And that stung more than Leonard would care to admit, but he let it slide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	faking

**Author's Note:**

> I did run this by my beta, but i'm the most impatient person on the planet so i reread it myself and then posted it. Many apologies to my beta. Also this isn't the fic I had in my head when I started writing, so maybe I'll give the fake relationship thing another shot.

When Leonard sat himself down at the bar, it was with a heavy heart. He flopped onto the bar stool, head in his hand, and maybe this bar was a little too trendy for pity drinking but it was the closest place to his house.   
  
"Someone's down in the dumps."   
  
Leonard looked up, not just because of the voice he heard but because of the warmth he felt behind him, and his eyes met a pair of sparkling blue ones. He blinked, got lost in them for a second, and then shook his head, down to the cheap bourbon in his hand.   
  
"Want to talk about it?"   
  
Leonard looked up again, and took in the rest of him this time. He was wearing a bright, almost goofy type of grin, maybe a little bit smug. He didn't seem like he genuinely cared; just looking to be the shoulder the cry on, the savior.   
  
The rebound.   
  
"No." Leonard answered, monotone. "I don't."   
  
"You sure, because I've been told I'm a gr-"   
  
Leonard looked up and gave him a glare, but it wasn't exactly a glare. he was seriously lacking in the malice department; he imagined he just looked soft. Old. Weary. But whatever he looked like, it must have been damn bad, because the guy shifted his weight from foot to foot, and sighed.   
  
"Fine." He conceded. "I'll leave you to it."   
  
Leonard huffed as the warmth that had been stood behind his shoulder dissipated, and the kid went off to get another drink and a new conquest. He was glad. He didn't need a one night stand right now.   
  
But the more he drank the more he thought he was wrong. Jocelyn had been fucking the guy across the street for months, it'd be alright for Leonard to have a night with some girl (or guy, he had long ago decided that he didn't have a preference in the company he kept) from the bar. Not a rebound. Just a good time.   
  
He was wrong, of course. Very wrong. He got himself a mint julep because he totally wasn't wallowing anymore and got chatting to a wonderfully pretty blonde lady who said her name was Janice, and she pressed closer, lips to his ear asking if he wanted to help her home, in the most sultry voice possible.   
  
Leonard wasn't sure why he said it, but that girl was coming onto him so strongly and Leonard couldn't think straight, couldn't pull his thoughts together. He was still aching from divorce, still hurting, still bitter, and he wasn't ready to do this yet.   
  
So he did the first thing he could think of; he reached out, wrapped an arm around the first warm body he found and tugged it towards him.   
  
"Sorry, I can't, actually, this is my, uh- my- my partner."   
  
The girl looked between Leonard, and the guy who had totally been hitting on him before. He blinked, meeting those big blue eyes again, and then he looked back to Janice. He hoped he'd play along, at least to make it believable. Just enough for her to go away.   
  
"You're his partner?" She asked, eyebrows raising. Leonard felt his heart skip. He was going to look like such an ass when he said he had absolutely no idea who this guy was or what he was talking about and they'd never seen each other in their lives.   
  
The guy didn't even miss a beat.   
  
"Damn right. Did well, huh? I mean he's a little moody, and more than a little grumpy when he's been on the rough stuff but who'd care with a face like that?" Leonard raised his eyebrows at him, but he just grinned at him, looking back to Janice with a bright smile. "He hates it when I talk about him like that. Or at least that's what he says. I know you love it."   
  
That time he addressed Leonard, leaned in to peck his lips and grinned. Leonard, startled, looked back to Janice, who had seemingly believed it. Leonard had thought it was a little over the top, but whatever works, he supposed. She flicked her hair and left, offering a smile to them both. She didn't seem to upset about it. Good thing, too.   
  
"Uh— thanks."   
  
Leonard gave the guy an awkward sort of smile; he was a little tipsy, a little less grumpy now than he would normally be. He was far more accepting of company when he was verging on drunk, and this was his fourth drink and the other hadn't taken his arm from around him yet.   
  
"What was wrong with her?" He asked. "I mean she looked- she was- well, yknow."   
  
Leonard shrugged his shoulders, and reluctantly stepped away. "Just not lookin' for that tonight, I guess."   
  
He nodded. "I think you owe me a drink." He said, and as if he was expecting Leonard to protest, he added, "Just to thank me for that little show there."   
  
Leonard sighed. He guessed a drink was the least he could do. He nodded, and led him over to the bar.   
  
It turned out that this guy's name was Jim Kirk and he was from Iowa, not Mississippi, but he hadn't been in Iowa since he was sixteen and he was twenty six now and this was his first time this far South and he had never been to Georgia but that accent, the one Leonard was sporting, was for better than the rest of the natives here.   
  
Leonard told him that he'd been in Georgia all his life until he moved away for college and then he'd just stuck because one something was familiar he liked to stick with it and he had a wife once but she left and he didn't like the accent but he knew some people did and he was awful good at using it against people.   
  
But Jim would never find out because Leonard was still having that issue with one night stands and cheating on the wife who wasn't actually his wife anymore. So he wasn't going to try anything like that on Jim. Not now, anyway. And actually, Jim understood.   
  
He walked Leonard back to his flat, but only because they were talking, and they both agreed it was nice to have someone to talk to. They exchanged phone numbers, and went their separate ways.   
  
Leonard considered it a better night than expected.   


~*~

Three days later, and he hadn't spoken to the guy since. Leonard's excuse was that the number had been written on the back of his hand; the hand which he had used to splash cold water onto his face with in the morning, rubbing away the number before he had a chance to write it down on something more permanent.   
  
He was miserable for the next three days because of that, and because of the many offers and prepositions made to him by members of staff who had found out about the divorce. He had wanted to call the guy, maybe try and arrange another meeting or have something because it was ridiculously easy to talk to the kid, but that had all gone out of the window now, and he was being constantly harassed by his coworkers. Without someone to talk to, he thought he might go insane. Jim hadn't called; he possibility that he wold never see him again was a strong one, in his opinion.   
  
It was funny how fate thought opposite.   
  
Leonard was the doctor running A&E on that fourth day, and he was doing a damn good job of it, despite being hit on by doctors and nurses alike for the whole of his shift. His barking and grouching got things done on time, scared interns into helping and got residents to get their asses moving faster. When a troop of guys who were injured after a bike accident came in he had each one checked out and sent off to various departments or packed up and sent home within fifteen minutes.   
  
But there was one who hung behind.   
  
"Just hold that there, and-"   
  
"Didn't I tell you to take Bed 3 up to radiology? Beat it, kid!" Leonard snapped, taking the place of an intern stood at the end of the bed. He believe tough love was the best approach with the interns. The needed to learn.   
  
"Wow. So you're always this grouchy. Good to know."   
  
That was a familiar voice. Leonard looked up from the chart that had been so crudely filled out, and met those big blue eyes again.   
  
"I'm only grouchy when god damn interns don't do as they're told." He griped, setting the chart down on the end of the bed and moving the cold compress from Jim's forehead.   
  
"What happened?" He asked.   
  
Jim recounted the tale of how the car had slammed into the boatload of bicycle riders and he had been caught in the big game of cyclist dominoes that ensued. He had hit his head, but he didn't have a concussion, the intern had said.   
  
Leonard checked just in case.   
  
"You didn't call." Jim said, when he had surrendered the cold compress and been told to go home and take it easy.   
  
"Lost your number." Leonard winced. "Washed it off by mistake. But you didn't call either."   
  
Jim gave him a grin, his cheeks pinking. "I washed it off too."   
  
Leonard laughed, a laugh more genuine than any he had given in days, despite how small and quiet it was.   
  
"Go on, Jim." Leonard said, patting him on the shoulder. "Get yourself home."   
  
Jim grinned, and Leonard turned away to deposit his chart for later filing, when Nurse Anderson caught him. She ghosted her hand over his arm, which was rather unprofessional, and asked in a low tone if he'd like to come over to hers for a few drinks later.   
  
Leonard didn't know how to refuse; everyone knew that he didn't have plans. He winced, floundered, and then-   
  
"Oh, and don't forget, I'm picking you up after shift tonight baby."   
  
Leonard was once again knocked sideways as Jim pressed a kiss to his cheek, gave him a cheeky smile. "What time did you say it was again?"   
  
"Five." Leonard answered.   
  
"Five." Jim repeated. "Got it. See ya later, babe!"   
  
And with that he was gone, and Leonard was left staring after him.   
  
Anderson seemed appropriately snubbed as she stepped away, but of course, Leonard couldn't have got off so lightly. There were quite a few people stood around, appraising him, and then looking at Jim's retreating figure. He couldn't deny this.   
  
He was, as of this moment, in a relationship with Jim Kirk.   


~*~

  
  
"Y'know, they all think you're my boyfriend."   
  
"So let them. I don't mind. Do you?"   
  
"Well no, but-"   
  
"Exactly. No. So it's fine. No harm being done."   
  
"But Jim-"   
  
"But what, Bones?"   
  
Jim turned to look at him, his hands planted firmly on the steering wheel. He raised his eyebrows before looking back to the road. Alright, so he had a good point. Leonard didn't have a good enough excuse.   
  
"Bones?"   
  
He decided if he couldn't argue he was at least going to question him.   
  
"Yeah, y'know." Jim said, and shrugged. He was smiling. "Like a sawbones. You're a doctor, aren't you?"   
  
"Mm hm." Leonard nodded.   
  
"I didn't know that." Jim added. He looked over to Leonard, and smiled. "What's your specialty? Have you got a specialty?"   
  
"Pediatrics, actually." Leonard answered, and watched Jim's gaze shoot upwards. "But the trauma surgeon's on sabbatical, so we're all pitching in to keep the emergency room running."   
  
"You're a pediatrician? You?" Jim asked, eyebrows about to meet his hairline.   
  
"You got a problem with that?" Leonard snapped.   
  
Jim's answering grin was wide. "Nope."   
  
Leonard gave a curt nod.   
  
"I just think it's great, that's all." Jim added, a moment later.   
  
And Leonard- well Leonard felt genuinely happy about that.   


~*~

  
  
Jim became his "boyfriend", and he was pretty damn good at the act. He would more often than not, when he wasn't working at the cafe he had managed to get a job at, come in and meet Leonard in the hospital cafeteria for lunch, because "that's what couples do, Bones, no wonder you and your wife split up, Jesus". And that stung more than Leonard would care to admit, but he let it slide.   
  
Sometimes he would pick him up after shift or sometimes he'd meet him, but they always ended up at Leonard's apartment, eating pizza and watching some crappy movie from the eighties.   
  
He's not sure when it shifted; when it became easy to hold Jim's hand and kiss him like it was nothing. Jim had pulled him over and talked to him, told him to loosen up a bit, but it wasn't just the pep talk that was helping him get better at this. He was actually starting to... well, to want to be in a relationship with Jim.   
  
"Bones!"   
  
He waved him over, having already gotten Leonard's dinner and set it down opposite his at the table he kept for him, the same table every day.   
  
"Don't you have a life?" Leonard asked, but he was only joking, just teasing.   
  
"I do," Jim nodded. "It just revolves around you."   
  
It was easy for Leonard to lean in, peck his lips quickly before taking his seat and eating his dinner. People barely glanced their way now; they'd been at this for just over a month.   
  
Leonard had not yet mentioned his birthday to Jim. He didn't think he knew, nor did he think he would care, but he also thought that in thinking that, he was being naive. Of course Jim would care; he had quickly become Leonard's best friend. Maybe a little more than that, but his best friend, at least.   
  
"I can't pick you up after your shift, okay?" Jim asked, as they stood, clearing their rubbish away. "And I can't meet you. I will, however, meet you at home."   
  
Leonard nodded; home, of course, meaning his house. He'd never seen Jim's house. He could have slept on the streets for all Leonard knew, he slept over at his more often than not.   
  
"I'll see you there." He agreed, leaning away before Jim caught him, taking his hand and tugging him forward until they were chest to chest, pressed flush together.   
  
"Are you forgetting something?" Jim said, his voice a low whisper.   
  
It was moments like those that made it easy to forget that they weren't actually together, that this was nothing, just a fake relationship to help Leonard get over his ex wife but it was more than that, now. Leonard had healed suspiciously quickly. He didn't want to tell Jim that, though, in case he left.   
  
He leaned in, pressed a longer, more lingering kiss to Leonard's lips, which he knew would look firm despite how soft it really was. They had never once kissed like that. Not deeply, passionately, tongues twisting and teeth clacking.   
  
But, Leonard could dream.   
  
"See you, darlin'." he said as he stepped away, raising his eyebrows at Jim.   
  
Jim just grinned. "See ya, Bones."   
  
The cab ride home felt longer than usual because he didn't have Jim asking about his day and talking about his day at the cafe and there was nothing but the buzz of the radio to break the silence. He was looking forward to seeing Jim; he was always looking forward to seeing Jim.   
  
He wondered if this was getting t Jim too, if he too was starting to revel in the sight of Leonard. He wondered if he loved hearing about his day, loved all the hand holding and the soft presses of lips, or if he saw this as nothing. They had long ago come to the agreement that for the relationship, Leonard was repay Jim in cheap medical care (because he was ridiculously clumsy) and pizza. Maybe this was just a business deal to Jim.   
  
When he stepped inside the apartment, the lights were off, which was odd, seeing as it was only five o'clock in the evening and not even dark.   
  
He flipped on the lights, and Jim burst out from behind the kitchen wall, grinning, "Surprise!"   
  
He held up a big pink cake, with a spattering of candles on top. It looked hand made, the icing slipping down from the sides.   
  
"Happy birthday, babe."   
  
It sounded so real that Leonard could be forgiven for thinking it was.   
  
"How the hell did you know about this?" He demanded, but his voice was soft, his smile filled with awe.   
  
Jim grinned, setting the cake down on the coffee table. "I asked around. Now blow the candles out before they melt into the cake."   
  
Leonard did as he was told, grinning just a little as he knelt by the side of the coffee table, blowing out his candle. Jim whooped, gave a cry of, "Make a wish!" and Leonard closed his eyes, making the only wish he could think of: that all of this would be real.   
  
It was the only thing he truly wanted. And he knew he was a sap for that, but he couldn't help it. He had grown too attached to Jim to care.   
  
"Here." Jim said, and Leonard opened his eyes, looked at the parcel Jim was holding out to him.   
  
"Jim-" he began, his voice an obvious warning, but Jim jabbed him with.   
  
"Go on." He insisted. "Open it."   
  
He sighed, taking the parcel and unwrapping it quickly, tearing the paper from it.   
  
"365 Things To Be Happy About"   
  
The book was yellow, with a big smiley face on the front. Inside was a fact for every single day of the year, something that had happened on that day that was deemed funny enough to be put into the book.   
  
"Figured someone as grouchy as you might need it."   
  
Leonard looked up, and he gave Jim a small, grateful smile. He wondered if it showed just how happy he really was. "It's great, Jim."   
  
"It's stupid." Jim said, shoulders shrugging.   
  
"No, no," Leonard shook his head, and Jim's gaze met his, grounding him for a moment, causing him to pause. "No. It's great."   
  
Jim grinned, his voice soft. "I'm glad you like it."   
  
Leonard noticed for the first time how close they were, how he could feel Jim's breath on his face and how it smelled sweet, like the icing covering the cake. His eyes were big and blue and soft, his smile wide, lips full.   
  
Leonard leaned in to kiss him without a second thought.   
  
It was deep and passionate, tongues twisted and teeth clacked, but then Jim pulled away, startled.   
  
"Bones." He said, voice hollow. "That's not what this. This is-"   
  
"Nothing." Leonard finished for him, but Jim obviously wasn't listening.   
  
"If you- God, I didn't know you were falling so far into this, I- I mean this is just, it's nothing, Bones- I should go. I've been here too long. I need to go."   
  
He stood quickly, clumsily, knocking the table but not the cake. He stumbled to the door, and Leonard stood too, followed him, called after him.   
  
"Jim!" He called. "Jim, I- I'm sorry. Stay. Please stay."   
  
"Goodbye, Bones."   
  
It wasn't until he heard Jim's car start and pull away did he realise that "here" did not mean Leonard, or his apartment; "here" meant Mississippi.   


~*~

  
  
Jim did not come back that night, or the next day, or the day after, or the day after that. He didn't call, didn't write. Nothing.   
  
Leonard went back to being miserable.   
  
He told everyone they'd had a fight and Jim had left and he didn't know where he was but he did know that he wanted to be left alone. He didn't want any help from anyone.   
  
"You two were pretty serious, huh?" Christine asked, lying on the bed opposite his in the On Call Room.   
  
Leonard huffed, rolled over to face the wall. "I thought so."   


~*~

  
  
He started to get on with his ex-wife. Not much. A little bit better every day. It didn't make him any happier, though.   
  
He wasn't good at pretending either. Couldn't pretend to be happy. The kids noticed, and so he took himself out, went and worked as a trauma surgeon full time. The fast pace and the challenges kept his hands and his mind busy, and he didn't get any questions as to why he looked so sad. He missed the kids, but he missed Jim too, and maybe he was better off without both of them.   


~*~

  
  
Everyone moved on from Leonard's moping after six months. No one cared anymore; even he found that he didn't care. He was less mopey and more angry. Angry at being such an idiot, angry at Jim for allowing it, for instigating it all.   
  
He was angry when there was a bike crash, a bike crash that reminded him of that day, the day they'd first talked for real. He sent four cyclists upstairs, sent two home, and he was about to get rid of his third, when-   
  
"Hey, Bones."   
  
He hadn't noticed at first. The kid had a helmet on, hiding the crop of sandy blonde hair, and his head cast down. He was wearing bike shorts.   
  
"What the hell are you wearing?"   
  
Jim looked up, and he grinned. Obviously not the answer he was expecting. Or maybe it was, and that was why he looked kind of smug.   
  
"I cycle now. It's good for you."   
  
Leonard grimaced when he saw the grazes across Jim's skin, the bleeding.   
  
"Maybe not that good for you." He argued.   
  
Jim chuckled.   
  
"I thought you left." Leonard said, his voice conversational despite his subject matter. He could feel people buzzing around them, watching them.   
  
"I did." Jim nodded, wincing as Leonard cleaned his leg with an antiseptic wipe. "But I came back."   
  
"Why?" Leonard asked- demanded.   
  
"Because-" Jim began, and then he faltered. He had never heard Jim falter before. "Because of you."   
  
Leonard nodded. Didn't address that just yet. "Where did you go?"   
  
"Iowa." Jim answered. "Went to see my mom."   
  
"Thought you didn't talk to your mom?"   
  
Jim grimaced as Leonard patted down the "wound", and wrapped it in bandage. "I do now."   
  
Leonard raised an eyebrow, and so Jim continued, "She told me, once, that Kirks Don't Settle. She's been to nearly every country on the planet. Traveled most of her life, same as me. We wander.   
  
And when I met you I was still wandering. But then you became home. And I thought that I would get over that and be able to move on, until you kissed me. And I realised that I love you, Bones. Leonard. And you're home, and that's scary, because Kirks don't settle and I don't want to hurt you."   
  
Leonard stopped dead, hands hovering over Jim's leg. "There's an exception to every rule, y'know."   
  
"I know." Jim nodded.   
  
"Do you want to be the exception?" Leonard prompted, after a moment's silence.   
  
Jim curled dirty hands in Leonard's lab coat, grabbing him by the lapel, and pulled him down, into a kiss that was deep and passionate that Leonard felt right in the pit of his stomach. It meant something, it meant a lot of things and when Leonard pulled back, he was breathless.   
  
Jim grinned, panting just a little too. "I do." He nodded. "I really do, Bones."

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone ha any prompts, let me know!


End file.
